G3N Retail Stack Story

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Procurement Cycle Management (PCM) ​

Status: Implemented (core; NPI automation, matching, and vendor performance in place).

Purpose ​

PCM owns procurement transactions: procurement worksheets, purchase orders, receipts, invoices, and RTV. It coordinates New Item Introduction (NPI) in PVM when new products must be created during buying or receiving.

Goals ​

  • Provide P2P-grade procurement workflows with traceability and exception handling.
  • Support both simple workflows and advanced controls without changing the platform posture.
  • Ensure procurement can build product master data in PVM when required.
  • Preserve cost, vendor performance, and matching history for audit and finance.

Non-goals ​

  • PCM does not define product sellability (owned by PMC).
  • PCM does not define pricing rules (owned by PPM).
  • PCM does not define inventory truth (owned by ICS).

Scope and gating ​

  • All procurement is org-scoped.
  • Operational actions are logical-facility scoped.
  • Channel context is required for procurement worksheets and sourcing inputs.
  • Procurement channels define worksheets and sourcing inputs; PCM references those worksheets.

Request context checklist ​

  • Org: required for all procurement operations.
  • Logical facility: required for POs, receipts, and RTV.
  • Procurement channel: required for worksheets and sourcing inputs.
  • Actor + role: required for approvals and receiving exceptions.
  • Cost-centre: optional attribution for billing and audit.

Core business entities and relationships ​

  • Procurement worksheet (channel input) and worksheet lines.
  • Purchase orders and PO lines.
  • PO lines support procurement units and conversions to sell units.
  • Receipts and receipt lines with exception codes.
  • Invoices and matching records (2-way and 3-way when enabled).
  • RTV records, vendor credits/credit memos, and replacements.
  • Vendor performance metrics (lead time, fill rate, on-time delivery).
  • Vendor item identifiers, pack sizes, MOQs, and procurement units (linked to PVM).

Lifecycle and status model (described in words) ​

  • PO lifecycle: draft -> pending approval -> approved -> issued -> partial receive -> close/cancel.
  • Receipts progress through received -> QC/quarantine -> available.
  • Invoices move through submitted -> matched -> approved -> resolved/disputed.
  • Consignment items remain in consignment-held state until settlement triggers.

End-to-end workflows ​

Happy paths ​

  • Worksheet -> PO -> approval -> issue -> receive -> close.
  • NPI creation in PVM during procurement for new SKUs.
  • 2-way or 3-way matching with tolerance rules.
  • Consignment settlement triggered by consumption or sales.

Exceptions and edge cases ​

  • Partial receipts, over/under, wrong item, or damaged goods.
  • QC/quarantine outcomes and discrepancy resolution.
  • Invoice disputes and corrective credits.
  • RTV with replacement shipments linked to original PO.
  • Supplier delays and ETA changes with downstream availability impact.

Configuration and defaults ​

  • The platform is enterprise-grade by default; applications may hide complexity via defaults.
  • Approval thresholds and matching tolerances are org policies; thresholds are % and $ values with optional facility overrides.
  • PO submission requires approval when thresholds or risk policies are triggered; approvals capture approver, timestamp, and reason with optional no-self-approval rules.
  • Run-based ordering (size/color matrices), pack sizes, and MOQ rules are supported.
  • Consignment and vendor performance capture are configurable.
  • Draft or incomplete product records may be purchasable internally (org policy) but are not sellable until published via PMC.
  • Receiving exception paths can trigger NPI creation for unregistered items.

Open-to-buy and procurement analytics ​

  • Open-to-buy (OTB) is a receipt budget guardrail, not a forecast. It controls how much can be bought to hit sales, margin, and stock targets by time bucket.
  • Scope by org with facility/department/class/channel slices and roll up to cost centres; time buckets support weekly, monthly, and seasonal planning.
  • Inputs include planned sales/margin, on-hand/available, on-order, in-transit/transfers, lead-time variability, promos/price changes, and lifecycle events.
  • Outputs include remaining OTB, projected weeks-of-supply, and over/under-buy flags with reason codes.
  • Governance includes approval thresholds (% and $), reason-coded adjustments, and frozen periods with full auditability.
  • Procurement analytics cover vendor performance (lead-time mean/variance, fill rate, on-time delivery, ASN accuracy, damage/defect rate).
  • PO lifecycle health includes cycle time by stage, expedite rate, partial receipt rate, and cancellation/backorder frequency.
  • Cost variance includes landed cost vs plan, tariff/freight impact, invoice mismatch rate, and exchange-rate effects.
  • Inventory outcomes include turns, aging/obsolescence, shrink/over-under, and service-level impact.
  • Compliance/governance covers MOQ/pack adherence, approval overrides, tolerance breaches, RTV cycle time, and credit recovery.
  • NPI outcomes include time-to-sellable, first-receipt accuracy, and early return/defect indicators.

Reorder management (procurement-aligned) ​

  • Transfer analytics -> reorder insights: persistent transfer-out indicates reorder points too low at a facility or too high at the source; lead-time variance informs safety stock; transfer cost vs vendor cost signals when rebalance is cheaper than new procurement; short-ship/failure reasons show where buffers or alternate sources are needed; transfer patterns reveal regional demand shifts and cross-channel cannibalization.
  • Recommendations: segment by velocity/variability (ABC/XYZ) with continuous review for A items and periodic review for long-tail; use reorder point + order-up-to with MOQs, case packs, capacity, shelf-life, and regulatory constraints; make safety stock dynamic using service-level targets, lead-time variability, promo calendars, and planned price changes; support multi-echelon logic (transfer-first vs vendor buy); use exception-first workflows with reasons/approvals; preserve temporal truth with "as-of" inventory, price, and cost context for audit and post-mortem.

BI and KPI expectations ​

  • OTB utilization, weeks-of-supply, and over/under-buy flags by time bucket.
  • Vendor lead time variance, fill rate, and on-time delivery rate.
  • PO cycle time, expedite rate, and partial receipt rate.
  • Invoice match and discrepancy rates with tolerance breach counts.
  • Landed cost variance, freight/tariff impact, and FX impact.
  • RTV rate and credit recovery time.

KPI readiness checklist ​

  • PO lifecycle timestamps (draft, approved, issued, received, closed).
  • Receipt line exceptions with reason codes and QC outcomes.
  • Vendor identifiers, lead times, and agreed terms captured.
  • Invoice match outcomes and tolerance breaches recorded.
  • Landed cost inputs (freight, tariff, FX) captured per receipt.

Rebalancing and recalibration ​

  • Rebalance reorder points and order-up-to targets by facility and vendor performance.
  • Shift sourcing mix between transfer-first and vendor-buy based on cost and lead time.
  • Recalibrate OTB guardrails and approval thresholds (% and $) by season and category.
  • Apply min/max order quantity and capacity guardrails for procurement suggestions.

Omnichannel requirements ​

  • Procurement supports multiple sourcing channels and facilities.
  • External/virtual locations (3PL, vendor sites) are supported with traceability.

Performance requirements ​

  • Receiving, putaway, and discrepancy resolution must be near-instant.
  • Approval checks must not slow operational procurement workflows.

Operational resilience checklist ​

  • Operations are idempotent and retry-safe; duplicate submissions do not double-apply.
  • Event emission is non-blocking; operational actions do not wait on analytics pipelines.
  • Out-of-order events are tolerated; reconciliation uses timestamps and source references.
  • Exceptions generate actionable inbox items and can be retried or reversed with audit trails.
  • Long-running workflows are resumable with explicit state checkpoints.

Training and change management ​

  • Policy and workflow changes include training notes and operational checklists.
  • Critical changes use staged rollout with rollback guidance to reduce operational risk.
  • Support runbooks cover common receiving disputes, matching exceptions, and RTV handling.

Downstream accounting and integration capture ​

  • Every procurement event captures org, facility, vendor, SKU, qty, unit cost, landed-cost inputs, timestamps, and source references.
  • Matching outcomes and tolerances are recorded for audit.
  • Consignment settlements are traceable to sales or consumption events.
  • Events include optional cost-centre attribution for billing and audit.

Comments and inbox ​

  • Every procurement record supports comments, threads, and attachments with revision history.
  • Exceptions and approvals generate team inbox notifications.

Governance and roles ​

  • Facility-scoped operational roles (pcm_* roles) with explicit facility grants for members.
  • Approval and matching policies are primary-owner controlled.
  • PO approvals require designated approver roles (pcm_po_approve) when thresholds are exceeded.
  • Cost visibility is restricted to cost_view (facility) or finance_audit (org-wide).
  • Role grants can be permanent, time-bounded, or scheduled.
  • NPI creation and vendor association approvals are governed by org policy and restricted to authorized roles.

Relationships and data flow ​

  • Procurement channels create worksheets; PCM converts them into POs.
  • PVM receives NPI updates for new products or supplier associations.
  • ICS records inventory movements from receiving.
  • SCM sells only items published in PMC, not directly from PCM.
  • PCM can initiate publish readiness, but sales remains PMC-driven.
  • Global supplier/product master references remain immutable; org overlays are annotations/mappings only.
  • NPI records progress through draft → submitted → approved → completed/failed, with PVM creation results (style/variant IDs) captured in the NPI record.

Example scenarios and acceptance criteria ​

Scenario 1: NPI during receiving ​

  • A new item arrives that is not in PVM.
  • PCM creates the product in PVM and links it to supplier data.
  • The receipt is finalized after NPI completion.
  • Acceptance: the item is traceable to PVM and the receipt is auditable.

Scenario 2: 3-way match dispute ​

  • An invoice exceeds PO tolerance.
  • PCM flags the discrepancy and records the dispute.
  • A vendor credit resolves the mismatch.
  • Acceptance: the match outcome is recorded and traceable.

Scenario 3: Consignment settlement ​

  • Consigned goods are received and held in consignment status.
  • Sales trigger settlement calculations.
  • Acceptance: settlement references sales records and preserves ownership vs possession.

Scenario 4: High-value PO approval gate ​

  • A buyer creates a PO that exceeds the approval threshold.
  • A designated approver reviews and approves with a reason; no-self-approval is enforced.
  • Acceptance: the PO shows approver, timestamp, reason, and policy version; audit trails are complete.

Scenario 5: FX variance and landed cost adjustment ​

  • A PO is issued in a foreign currency; the FX rate changes before invoicing.
  • PCM records the original amounts and the converted amounts at invoice time, with a variance explanation.
  • Acceptance: landed cost inputs reflect FX variance; downstream valuation references both original and converted values.